El cant dels ocells
El cant dels ocells ( Catalan for 'The song of the birds') is an old folk and Christmas song from Catalonia . In this song, more than thirty species of birds, large and small, celebrate the birth of Christ . The melody of the song is solemn, set in a minor key and has a very large range of notes.
Pau Casals ended all of his exile concerts since 1939 with this song, such as the concert on November 13, 1961 in the White House in front of Jackie and John F. Kennedy and invited guests in an arrangement for cello and piano . In this way, like the Virolai de Montserrat , this song became a Catalan national symbol , a kind of secret national anthem, alongside the official Catalan anthem Els Segador .
The lyrics
This is followed by the text in an old Catalan language, which sometimes differs from the current Catalan spelling, together with a German translation.
Catalan | German |
---|---|
El cant dels aucells |
The song of the birds |
Thus 32 different birds appear one after the other:
- Imperial eagle
- sparrow
- Greenfinch
- siskin
- Linnet
- Song thrush
- nightingale
- Redtail
- Stonechat
- Golden chicken
- canary
- Woodlark
- blackbird
- Great tit
- Francolin chicken
- Woodpeckers
- bullfinch
- quail
- cuckoo
- hoopoe
- turtledove
- Dove
- partridge
- magpie
- Mistletoe
- jay
- goldfinch
- Chaffinch
- Scops Owl
- Little owl
- brown owl
- Eagle owl
During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), a political version of the song was circulated on leaflets in 1705 on the occasion of the visit of the Austrian Archduke Karl to Barcelona. The title read: Cant dels Aucells quant arribaren los vaxells devant de Barcelona, y del desembarch de Carlos III (que Deu guarde) , that is: “Song of the birds at the arrival of the ships before Barcelona and the landing of Charles III. (whom God protect) ”. In this version, the birds cheer the designated Spanish rival king as the future savior of the country.
Pau Casals and El cant dels ocells
In his memoirs, Pau Casals explains his motivation for turning this impressive Christmas carol into a secret Catalan hymn under the title A Christmas Story :
“When I was already in exile after the Spanish Civil War, I made it a habit to end all my concerts and music festivals with an old Catalan folk song that is actually a Christmas carol. It's called 'El Cant dels Ocells' , 'The song of the birds'. Since then, this melody has become the song of homesick Spanish refugees. Today I own a country house in the village of Molitg-les-Bains in the French Pyrenees, right next to the Gran Hôtel Thermal […]. The hotel owner had fifteen bells arranged in a tower to form a carillon for which I sing the birds have set up; and now this compelling melody can be heard every hour, every hour the mountains echo back. An inscription on the largest bell says: 'In this song I sing about the worries and homesickness of the Catalans'. [...] May it be a song of peace and hope for you tomorrow. "
Pau Casals' heartfelt wish would come true after Franco's death in 1975 and the subsequent Transición , the democratization of Spain.
literature
- Enciclopèdia Catalana: El cant dels ocells . In: Gran enciclopèdia catalana. 2nd edition 5th reprint 1992. Volume 6 . Enciclopèdia catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-85194-90-X , p. 184 f . (Catalan).
- Enciclopèdia.cat: El cant dels ocells. Retrieved April 26, 2018 (Catalan).
- Pau Casals (arrangement): El Cant dels Ocells . For solo voice and four-part choir. April 26, 2018 ( el-atril.com [PDF]).
Web links
- Pau Casals: Pau Casals plays El Cant dels Ocells (YouTube). Retrieved April 26, 2018 (Catalan).
- Pau Casals: Pau Casals plays El Cant dels Ocells (YouTube). White House concert on November 13, 1961. Retrieved April 26, 2018 (Catalan).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Discography: Pau Casals: Concierto en la Casa Blanca 13-XI-61 (concert in the White House on November 13, 1961), Sony Music Entertainment, 1962 and 1991. This CD contains El Cant dels Ocells , played by Pau Casals, cello , and Mieczysław Horszowski , piano.
- ↑ Pau Casals - El cant dels ocells (at the White House) YouTube video
- ↑ Jaume Ayats: Les cançons dictades al segle XVII i principis del XVIII ( Memento of December 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF). Recerca Musicològica XIX, 2009, pp. 229-240. With the political lyrics in updated Catalan spelling on page 237.
- ↑ El cant dels ocells (1705) . Blog of the Grup d'Opinió Ara Lliures, September 17, 2013, with an image of the historical leaflet.
- ↑ Pablo Casals: Light and shadow on a long way. Memories recorded by Albert E. Kahn. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1971, ISBN 3-10-012801-X , p. 20 f.